Rave on at The 409

It started out as a normal Monday, I went to work, came home, Rian went off to her Junior League meeting (buy a cookbook), and I started the Critters dinner. This is were the night took an interesting turn. CarCar said that she was on the interweb and did some research on raves. She decided that we would have one in the living room. Unfortunately, I found out that we were ill prepared for such an event. We didn't have the obnoxious house rave acid punk music, glow sticks, hundreds of hopped up teenagers, smoke machine, illicit drugs (hopefully you all know this is a joke, we abide by the lovely Nancy Reagan and "Just Say No"), and laser light show. CarCar pondered for a minute, went and dug around in the magical toy box, and came back with her laser globe thing that Grandma Kate got her.

CarCar told me to hit the music. "What music," I ask? She told me that Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon would have to do. I comply and walk back into the room to this:

Crazy Globe o' Light.

Hopefully this won't turn out like those Japanese cartoons.

Peach was raving like no other.

After a couple of minutes and with a strong push by Brother to eat, we ended our rave. It started as quickly as it ended. Unfortunately some of the Critters wanted the rave to last long into the night, but it was not to be. Back to the real world of dinner, baths, and bottles.

It just doesn't have the same effect with the lights on.

Chris

CarCar

This image is just more proof that CarCar is definitely Rian's 31 inch clone. This is exactly how Rian lays on the couch (minus the lovie) and I must point out that just like Rian, CarCar does not share the blanket.

Chris

Thanksgiving - Slightly Belated

Well better late than never. We had an eventful Thanksgiving weekend in Orlando. It started off with a bang with 6 hour car ride down. This traumatic event lead to a pretty interesting Black Friday for Rian and I.

I'll start off by saying we got two, yes two pictures on Thanksgiving Day. To boot they were taken on my iPhone so as you can imagine the clarity is second to none. It is hard lugging around the ole Canon while trying to corral the Critters. Rian and I have vowed to get more pictures as we only have one shot at this raising kids thing. Hopefully Rian will find a Canon point and shot camera under the tree this year.

Thanksgiving was quite a relaxing day down in Orlando. Rian and I had a few things to make but overall the stress level was close to nil, especially comparing it to the drive down. While thumbing through the ads I noticed that Target had a portable dual-DVD player on sale on Black Friday. The only catch is it went on sale at 4am, and it had the following ever so lovely words printed below the picture, "While supplies last." Translation, we have two in the store so your butt better be here when the doors open and you better be able to throw some 'bows' to get this damn thing.

I am really not sure why we decided to get up at 3:30am to get this, aside from saving $75 off the regular price. We pull into the Target parking lot and I realize that we did not plan this jaunt too well. "Wow the parking lot is pretty full." I am not sure why I said this due to the fact that I knew it was going to be a mad house. What I didn't realize was that the line ended behind the Target by the loading docks. It was also not very well light behind the Target, I guess it just added to the Black Friday ambiance. I will say that once they opened the doors, the line moved at a rapid pace, I'm talkin' it was hard to keep up with the person in front of you. By the time we hit the front doors it resembled what you see on the evening news when three people where trampled trying to save 50 bucks on a TV. Once people crossed that threshold of the door they began sprinting. I'm sure you all can guess where everyone was heading, yep, the electronics section. Somehow I hit the right aisle on the second try. I look down and the woman who got there ahead of me had ripped the glass doors open and grabbed three of the DVD players. I quickly boxed out any other people and grabbed two so I could check the boxes. I am not quite sure how this woman got this case open but she definitely saved us a step by having to get an associate with a key to open the case. I have heard of instances where people get superhuman strength to lift a car off a child, but I can now say I have seen super human Black Friday get that damn glass case open strength.

After that the rest of the weekend was pretty tame. We headed over to the Healey's house to watch the absolute beat down of the Gators (6 years in the making), and then we headed to Mellow Mushroom for dinner. I forgot how good the pizza is there.

Here are the two pictures from Thanksgiving:

Brother decided to eat all of the leaves that Grandma B cut out and put on the pie.

What? You said I could have dessert.

Chris

Kingdom of Sweets

The girls, Rian, and I headed over to Dorothy B. Oven Park for the Tallahassee Ballet's Kingdom of Sweets. It was a little chilly but overall it was a beautiful day for the event. We first stopped to get the girls picture taken with a character from The Nutcracker, and no I have no idea which one. It turned out to be a great picture of both, yes both girls looking at the camera. After that we headed to get the girls some grub, it was a pretty nice spread. Lots of sweets, hence the name of the event. I think the girls got their fill of sugar that day.

After that we let the girls run around a little bit to burn off some of their excess energy. CarCar took it upon herself to become the grounds crew and she literally picked up every leaf in this field and made a neat little pile. Hadley had her red bouncy balloon to entertain her. The girls had a great time there and I know that Brother had a good time with Aunt Donna at home watching football instead of napping.

Here are a few pics:

CarCar and Hadster running off some energy.

Groundskeeper CarCar.

CarCar on a bench.

Still running.

No, don't worry about decorating my cookie, I'll just eat it thank you.

Chris

200

Well I have finally hit 200 posts. That number seems like a lot, but in reality I fell as though I have neglected the blog for a little bit. Life has been a little hectic lately, especially this week. We had the perfect storm of sickness blow through our house and not even George Clooney could save or ship. Rian had the flu and a sinus infection and the Critters were just getting over colds. As of publication time of this post I have yet to get the sickness.

There has not been too much otherwise going on at our house. We have a busy few weeks coming up. We are hitting the FSU game this weekend and then Orlando for Thanksgiving.

I have also been asked to do a product review for CSNstores.com. This company has over 200 websites (I know you caught the tie-in to the post title) which sell everything from children's toys to bar tables and stools. Check it out if you get a chance.

I have a few posts ready to go so definitely check back in next week.

Chris

The Pumpkin Patch, Take Two.

Where's the Great Pumpkin?

We headed up the Pumpkin Patch at Faith Presbyterian Church, same as Trunk or Treat, to pick out our pumpkin this year. We were accompanied by our awesome Critter-sitter Lindsay. Let's just say that we began our search for our pumpkin a little late this year, it was slim pickins. After circling the "patch" a half dozen times we finally agreed on one.

Here our a few picks from our journey:

Critter-sitter Lindsay and the Critters.

Hadley looking at pumpkins, Carson looking at dirt.

Another unsuccessful try at a picture in front of the sign.

Hadley trying to find the perfect pumpkin.

I just like this picture of Hadley.

Same picture with a little editing.

Chris

Trunk or Treat 2.0

Well we rounded up the Critters for another go around at the annual Trunk or Treat event at Faith Presbyterian Church. Aunt Donna came along with us this year. We started out the evening with the Choo Choo Wagon, but the Critters quickly let us know that that would like to walk around in all different directions.

We were having a great time but it unfortunately went downhill quickly, you see, the Critters were just too excited about Trunk or Treat they forgot to take naps. Hadley was in prime form that night in an epic melt down. We had to quickly usher the Critters home and get them to bed. It was a great time while it lasted and hopefully next year we can stay a little bit longer.

Pics:

Hadley as a "peach."

CarCar playing the bumblebee.

Dad and Brother getting some candy.

Brother sifting through his treats.

Brother pondering the idea of how to get free candy year-round.

"Well hello there."

Chris